Thoughts on Music Education

Two posts on Facebook have gone somewhat viral regarding music education. 

Here is the original post by Geoffrey Keezer. 

Here is the response by James Falzone. (It's the text accompanying the photo.)

I think between the two, we have an understanding of some of the things that are wrong with higher ed at the moment. They both are right and they both are wrong.

I just retired from full-time teaching after 30 years (15 at USC, 15 at CU Denver). Here are my thoughts on what each of them got right and wrong, along with my observations of things they did not mention. Let’s start with James Falzone’s rebuttal first, with his three categories of “windows into what might be transpiring as both diagnosis and solution.”

1. HIGHER EDUCATION IS IN SHAMBLES

“[Policy decisions]… that have made the project of college teaching and learning absurdly expensive, highly regulated, overly assessed, and tragically unimaginative.”

Absolutely true. This creates several subcategories. 

1a) The Expense of School 

When I went to college, the middle class could get a quality education without going into lifelong debt, and in some cases, any debt at all. This is no longer the truth. For many, the cost makes them reconsider the value of education. 

1b) The Value of Education

The increased cost and the changes in higher ed have made it harder to justify a college education, especially a master’s degree. I know plenty of people who didn’t graduate high school and are successful in music and film. 

“From my experience, shame is never a good teacher and the ‘tough love’ Professor Keezer and many others seem to want to return to can resemble shame.” 

There are students for whom the only way to make the light bulb go on is to let them know how unprofessional they are. Often it is an otherwise “A” student who thinks they know everything, but still do not understand professionalism. I do believe that preparing students for employment is the primary job of secondary education. I tell students this in the syllabus and that I expect their work to approach a professional level. Many are not prepared for this. 

However, students (and parents) who think of higher ed as a job placement service are sadly mistaken. Our job is to prepare them for success when they get a foot in the door, not to find a job for them.

1c) Students as Paying Customers

This is a terrible attitude for administrators to have and it encourages the students to sue the school or to request that a faculty member be punished. I don’t know any faculty who think of students as paying customers. It allows the student to reject any part of their education even though most undergrads have no idea where they will end up in life or what they really need out of an education. 

One way in which this is problematic is that students are asked to review faculty, while taking the class, and without knowing what their final grade will be. These reviews hold a terrible amount of power over faculty. I know faculty who have been fired over poor reviews (which are anonymous to faculty and administration, so there is no accountability). If students knew what they needed, they wouldn't be in school. The original intent of these types of reviews was a guide for students so that they could decide which classes they want to take, and which teachers they want to study with. They should not be used to judge faculty. Followup with recent alumni is a far more important metric. They are now in a position to know what they learned in the class and how it has affected their careers.  

1d) The Pandemic Changed Everything

“The work is harder than ever.”

It was a very difficult two years for everyone, watching students who were miserable with their attention being split and with long-lasting mental issues created by staring at a computer screen for two years. Teaching undergrads, I have seen that students learned very little during those two years. I had freshmen the year following the pandemic, and they had no idea what college was supposed to be like. We are still dealing with students who lost two years of education, including social experiences. It was a terrible time for all of us. The pandemic also left faculty with mental damage and long-term physical damage as well. 

“'If I’m even a little bit right about this, that 9:30 AM class, no matter how great the teacher or subject matter, is diminished in a student’s worldview and is now just as important, or less so, as a host of other concerns vying for attention, including, indeed, long commutes, broken heaters and staying out to 3 am the night before.' 

"In my experience with students today, it can also include childcare needs, working several jobs, caring for ill parents, and housing instability.”

1e) “Kids Today”

“…it struck me as a caring but frustrated teacher who needed to vent after a tough day in the classroom. I’ve been there. But something about the tone of the lament, and, even more concerning, the disrespectful comments that have ensued from others about ‘kids today,’ has me flummoxed.”

The “kids today” attitude in academia has been around at least since ancient Greece. However, I have seen changes over the last 30 years. 

I am not just from a different time; I am from a different mentality than today’s students. Both my parents were in education. My father taught history and became a college administrator, eventually getting a Doctorate in Education. He had been in the services in WWII and was most well-known as a very successful football coach. Many of his best personality traits have come through me (along with some of the worst). My mother taught elementary school reading until she died, and when my father remarried, it was to a college English professor. 

Growing up, I was hardly ever late and hardly ever deliberately missed a class. Punctuality was driven into me. We had a great education in an upper-middle-class town. Of course, some students cut classes regularly. Many of them changed later in life and became more responsible. 

I went to two undergraduate schools with different attitudes towards education. At MIT, students were rarely late, but there were a lot of students who skipped classes entirely, and who went on to get A’s. This is why I do not grade using attendance as a metric. If you are smart enough to do well in the class and NOT attend class, that to me is a greater achievement than showing up and doing the minimum amount of work. If you do not attend class, you will find it very difficult to do well on the assignments, so there is no need for a separate attendance grade.  

Interestingly, at Berklee, some students got A’s without attending class, but many learned very little while there because they never went to class. At USC, the students were very different. Most of them were independently wealthy because it has always been an expensive school with few opportunities for scholarships. Most students were punctual and attended class, but if they skipped class, it was because they were working on their films. Because of their comparative wealth, there was little outside business to distract them. 

Moving to teach at CU Denver, I immediately had a different type of student. Almost all my students work at least part-time. Some of them work full-time. I had one student who worked an overnight shift at Coors Brewery and went on to get not only his bachelor’s degree but his master’s degree while doing so. I have students who have children and students who are caregivers for members of their families. I have students who cannot afford a computer or even a fast internet connection. I have students who share rooms with too many people for Zoom classes to function. 

Students HAVE changed, and their expectations have changed as well. This cannot be changed any time soon, which means teachers must adapt. In addition, every student is unique, and you have to try to teach them all regardless of your perceived notions about them. You have no idea what they are going through outside of class. 

1f) Neurodivergence 

As someone who checks off two boxes in neurodivergence, I understand and sympathize with students who truly need special assistance in learning. 

This is not going to be a popular statement, but I have found it to be true that some students exaggerate their issues solely so that they can put off work or have excuses for mediocre work. I regularly get requests to give students double the length of time for quizzes and exams. In only a handful of cases students needed more than the regularly allotted time and most finished in far less than that. 

Of course, some students do need assistance. It’s usually easy to see who does. But anyone who wants extra time gets it.

1g) Metrics in Education

In addition to not using attendance to grade, I make sure that quizzes and exams are a very small part of their overall grade. Also, the quizzes are extremely easy for students who attend class and take notes. In my current grad class, it is only 16% (about one-sixth) of their grade. I do not see that the value of being a good test-taker has anything to do with success in the music or film industry. I grade primarily on their semester-long projects. 

1h) Playing Nice

One of the ways I encourage professionalism is to have them do group projects. Nowhere in music or film will you find people who work completely alone. That’s not how life works. If I get reliable information from students that one group member is not carrying their weight, their final grade will be affected. The ability to work well with others is one of the most important goals of education for me. 

(2) PROVIDING CONTENT VS TEACHING

“I see far too many faculty members merely providing content as opposed to truly teaching.”

2a) Critical Thought

Teaching requires that students participate in critical thought. I have far too many students who have the attitude of “just tell me what to do” rather than thinking, how was this accomplished by other artists that we discussed in class, and how can I do it differently to seek my own voice as an artist?”

Critical thought is almost completely missing from today’s college students. It is very frustrating to have to teach upperclassmen like they are freshmen and freshmen like they are still in high school. 

The Socratic Method fosters student engagement through discussion. I find it harder and harder to get students to participate in class discussions. 

“One particularly disheartening comment on the original post suggested we need only teach to the really good students ‘because they are the ones that will amount to something.’”

Yikes, I do not know any faculty who have this attitude. However, it is almost always the best students who come to me for help outside of class time. It’s difficult to give everyone personalized instruction, so we tend to lean towards the students who are already doing well. 

2b) Learning from Criticism

Maybe I was just lucky, but at all points in my education, my best teachers were always the ones who were most critical of me. This is how you learn. If you were doing everything right, what are you doing in school? Go get an entry-level position (mostly unpaid internships) and get some real-life experience. This is how, historically, people have gotten jobs in music and film. 

I have had many “A” students who complained that I was too hard on students. The vast majority of my students who turn in their work on time get an A or A-. Most of the rest get a B+ or B. I can probably count on both hands the number of times I have given a “C.” Yet the students think I am too hard on them in my criticism. 

(3) LESS FOCUS ON THE INDIVIDUAL, MORE ATTENTION TO THE WHOLE

“… even a great player and teacher like Professor Keezer will not be able to sustain the concentration of a modern-day college student if they are not studying within an ecosystem that is healthy and created to nourish their interests over time.”

I rewrite my syllabi every semester, and every semester, I get off schedule and need to revise it during the semester. I know this is frustrating for students, but every individual and every group of individuals is unique. For instance, my grad class this semester is excellent, and I have already had some of them in similar classes. This has allowed me to rewrite the syllabus to include several guest lectures from working professionals. I know the students will appreciate this. 

“If we take a student’s seeming lack of interest as “blatant disrespect,” we are putting ourselves and our egos before their education.”

I’ll admit I felt this way when I started teaching. I was an adjunct who had come back to school to share my professional experiences with students. Having gone through the program at USC myself, I knew how much they were missing. It was insulting that there were students who didn’t even want to be in my class. In my old age, I have changed and am much more patient with students. (Every current and recent student is currently saying “How is that even possible? You mean you were worse at one point?”)

“Acknowledging the difficulty of the moment, honing our craft as teachers, and working together to build a healthy ecosystem in which students can flourish, is where my mind and heart are these days.”

Amen!

Now let’s look at the original post by Geoffrey Keezer. You can see immediately that it is not as well-written or even as well-thought-out a post. I’m sure he did not expect this to go viral. However, he does make some valid points. 

Attendance and Punctuality

“They can't be bothered to show up on time for a 9:30 AM class. Nothing but lame excuses. The trains were messed up. Was up hanging at Small's till 3 AM. My heater is broken. Ad nauseum. And when they do show up a half hour late (if at all), they haven't practiced and are unprepared.”

I agree that punctuality is important, but we are living in a post-pandemic world, and we can’t always expect students to be there on time. Again, this seems to be the instructor taking this personally instead of professionally as an educator. 

Grade Inflation

“This culture of ‘everybody gets an A", and "everybody gets a medal" regardless of students’ blatant disrespect for their lesson plans and their teachers.”’

I agree that there is a problem with grade inflation. This is what happens when you treat students like customers. But students have been living in that environment for decades. Using low grades purely as punishment does not encourage the student to change.  

“Back to tough love because it was still love. My mentors and bosses gave it to me straight if I was out of line. It might have hurt my feelings for a day or two, but then I got my shit together. Students - if you're serious about wanting a career in music when you graduate, then GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER. Practice your assignments, do the work, and SHOW UP. Thanks.”

If I am being honest, I can’t disagree with any part of his last statement. He puts it bluntly, but it is sometimes necessary to put a student in their place to let them know how far they are from being employable. Just don’t do it all the time.